There are a lot of different stories I could tell about SETT. To certain audiences of people outside the tech world, I could really make it seem like a big thing. I could say that I’m the CEO of a tech startup that’s growing 10% per week and has developed all sorts of innovative technology and has thousands of users.
That’s called fronting. It’s presenting a facade that’s based in reality but doesn’t give an accurate picture. It doesn’t address the fact that even if I embezzled 100% of the money SETT has earned so far, I’d be working for less than the average sweat shop worker. Nor does it capture the glamor of working with Todd in my RV, which doesn’t have air conditioning, for 12 hours per day coding and answering emails.
It’s really difficult to paint an accurate picture of anything, so you’ll see that people tend to overrepresent or underrepresent to some degree. My optimism probable makes me overrepresent a little bit. On the other hand I have a friend who hemmed and hawed about how she could barely play anything on the violin, and then played an advanced piece with more modesty than I’ve exhibited in my entire life. A week later she did the same with piano, earnestly insisting that she’d played (her original composition) rather poorly. That’s underrepresenting.
What’s interesting about fronting is that it’s a really effective tactic against the uneducated. Someone who knew even a tiny bit about aerospace engineering could probably easily convince me that he had invented the most amazing rocket ever. I wouldn’t know nearly enough to think otherwise, and I’d probably leave the interaction rather impressed.
The danger, of course, is when the fronter meets someone who knows enough to put their claims in context, and realizes that they’re full of it. That’s the problem with fronting– it doesn’t work against the people whose opinions you care most about, and when they realize that you’re fronting, you lose all credibility.
On the other hand, if you present yourself with humility, and that person gradually realizes that you’re more accomplished or capable than you let on, good things happen. You build trust and endear yourself to the person.
In most arenas, the truth comes out eventually. The qualitative substance of the truth matters a lot, but so does the side of it that you’re stand on. Best to be humble and downplay than to front.
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Photo is a guy in Hangzhou who painted with water… his paintings disappeared after a few minutes.
Heading to SF for two days, then off to Europe. On the books for a 17 day cruise: read War and Peace, complete a huge feature for Sett, write a book about habits, and publish gear post (probably).
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